1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with collapsible pet carriers for domesticated pets such as cats and dogs, whereby a pet owner may transport the carrier in a convenient collapsed condition, but can readily extend the carrier as needed in order to provide a temporary shelter and carrier for a pet. More particularly, the invention is concerned with such pet carriers preferably including a substantially rigid base with an attached pop-up frame and flexible cover, and wherein the frame is capable of pop-up self-erection to its extended use position when the frame is unrestrained without any manual manipulation or other intervention, because of the resilience, flexibility and shape memory characteristics of the frame material. An additional preferred aspect of the invention involves use of a top which mates with the base to form a carrier housing which restrains the frame in its collapsed condition; moreover, during use of the carrier the top may be attached to the base.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pet owners have traditionally relied upon rigid cages to contain pets while traveling. Such cages are often heavy, bulky and difficult to move, and thus are inconvenient for modern-day travelers.
Many attempts have been made in the past to provide more convenient and collapsible pet carriers which avoid the problems of standard cage-type carriers. However, these prior devices are often characterized by difficulty in use, i.e., significant time or effort is required to set up a carrier for use from a collapsed storage position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,148 describes a wearable pet enclosure having a base adapted to fit against the body with a collapsible frame and cover. In this instance, the frame is made up of separate flexible frame pieces each connected in a hoop-like fashion to the base. In order to extend the frame for use, it is necessary to first pull each frame piece upwardly and then disconnect an end of each piece which is then reconnected to an opposing coupler. As such, it is necessary to remove the cover in such a carrier in order to access the frame.
Other representative prior art pet carriers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,286,461, 6,021,740, 5,170,745, 4,803,951, 6,446,577, 5,351,646, 6,076,485, 3,156,213, 2,170,379, 3,481,311, D387,508, and Published Application U.S. 2003/0127060.